“Screw The Way Things Are, I Want Out!”

“Screw The Way Things Are, I Want Out!”

by Paul Rosenberg

“This is a beautiful planet, filled, in the main, with decent, cooperative humans. And yet, I want out. Give me any kind of functional spaceship and any reasonable chance, and I’ll take it. This place is anti-human. It chokes the best that’s in us, aggressively and self-righteously. I was struck not long ago by a comment of Ludwig Wittgenstein’s, in which he expressed the same kind of feeling: “I ought to have become a star in the sky. Instead of which I have remained stuck on earth…”

All of us who’ve had a moment of transcendence - who made some type of contact with what is truly the best inside ourselves - have also sensed that life in the current world is incompatible with it. I think we should stop burying that understanding beneath piles of “that’s the way things are,” “we should be realistic,” and “you can’t fight City Hall.”

Screw the way things are, screw “realistic,” and screw City Hall too. I was made for better things than this, and you were too.

Everywhere I turn, some kind of ruler, sub-ruler, enforcer, regulator, or “right-thinking” quasi-enforcer demands not only my money but also for me to make myself easy to punish, thus showing myself to be a good subservient. That’s not just wrong; it’s a disease. I don’t care whether such people are “following orders,” “just doing their job,” or whatever else they tell themselves to soothe their rightly troubled souls. That mode of living is perverse, and these people are enforcing a disease.

Let me make this part very clear: The desire to control others is disease; it is corruption. Willing controllers are a morally inferior class. And the truly deranged thing is that these people rule the world! Forget about why this is so - we can debate that later - focus rather on the utter insanity of this: A minority of moral defectives, who think extortion is a virtue, rule people who are happy to live and let live, by force.

That’s outright lunacy. And to support the lunacy, we have lies, intimidation, and slogans: “In a democracy, you’re really ruling yourself,” “Only crazy people disagree,” “It’s always been this way,” and so on. To all of which I reply, How stupid do you think we are? You drilled that crap into us when we were children, but we’re not children anymore. And if “our way” isn’t as bad as North Korea, that makes it right? Only to a fool.

And the results of “the way it’s always been”… my God, the results… A study from the 1980s found that since 3600 BC, the world has known only 292 years of peace. During this period there have been 14,531 wars, large and small, in which 3.6 billion people have been killed.

This is what I’m supposed to serve with all my heart and soul? A Bronze Age system that can’t keep itself from slaughter? We’re talking about a 5,600-year track record of mass death, and yet fundamental change is considered unthinkable? Well, screw that too, because I think deep, fundamental change is called for, and was called for a long time ago.

Again, this is a wonderful planet and most of the people on it are decent, but it is ruled by insanity, and I want out. Yes, I know, there’s really nowhere to go. Every place I might go is dominated by the same diseased model, and dissent is punished the same, and in some places worse. That’s one of the reasons space appeals to me; it gives me a chance to escape this madness.

I’ll draw this to a close with a passage from C. Delisle Burns’s wonderful "The First Europe," describing why the Roman Empire collapsed: “Great numbers of men and women were unwilling to make the effort required for the maintenance of the old order, not because they were not good enough to fulfill their civic duties, but because they were too good to be satisfied with a system from which so few derived benefit.”

I, for one, am unwilling to expend any effort to maintain the present order. It is by its nature incompatible with the best that is in us, and always will be. Those of us who want to be more and better cannot support the current order without opposing what’s best in ourselves. Screw that.”

- https://www.freemansperspective.com/

"Doubt..."

“Cherish your doubts, for doubt is the handmaiden of truth. Doubt is the key to the door of knowledge; it is the servant of discovery. A belief which may not be questioned binds us to error, for there is incompleteness and imperfection in every belief. Doubt is the touchstone of truth; it is an acid which eats away the false. Let no one fear for the truth, that doubt may consume it; for doubt is a testing of belief. The truth stands boldly and unafraid; it is not shaken by the testing, for truth, if it be truth, arises from each testing stronger, more secure. He that would silence doubt is filled with fear; the house of his spirit is built on shifting sands. But he that fears no doubt, and knows its use, is founded on a rock. He shall walk in the light of growing knowledge; the work of his hands shall endure. Therefore let us not fear doubt, but let us rejoice in its help. It is to the wise as a staff to the blind; doubt is the handmaiden of truth.”

- Robert T. Weston

"Stop Believing"

"Stop Believing"

by Jeff Thomas

"In 1776, Thomas Jefferson was asked to create a draft for a founding document for what was to become the United States. In his second paragraph, he said. "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." So firm was the vision of America’s founding fathers that this statement represented their collective belief that the twenty-eight signatories accepted it without any change in wording.

Could the same be said today? Do Americans possess a collective belief today? Do Americans perceive the word "rights" collectively? How about "liberty?" Would a random sampling of Americans generate the same definition of such words? Or, considering that most Americans who are unable to answer such simple questions as, "What state is New Your City in," how many Americans would respond to a request to define these words with no more than a blank stare?

But why should this be? Only a generation or two ago, Americans enjoyed educational standards that were exemplary in the world. Yet, today, it’s universally accepted that Americans have been dramatically "dumbed-down" to such an extent that a majority of high school graduates are not even proficient in simple math and grammar skills.

More worrisome is the fact that the basic beliefs of Americans have been transformed from relative certainty to being both arbitrary and confused. Let’s look at a few of these:

Religious faith: Most people imagine that they possess a basic understanding of right and wrong. Yet Americans often readily excuse Muslims for crimes against women, as they are merely "practicing their religion." Similarly, rap artists can be forgiven for misogyny, as their endorsement of abuse is classified as "cultural." Therefore, religious "conviction" actually becomes flexible depending upon whom it applies to.

Further, although roughly three-quarters of Americans see themselves as Christians, merely identifying oneself as a Christian may be sufficient to be accused of being antisemitic or racist. No logic is needed to explain this accusation; to be accused is to be guilty.

Family: For decades, welfare has helped to eliminate marriage, as a woman receives more welfare if there is no man present. During the COVID pandemic, parents discovered that their children are being indoctrinated by schools in ways parents never approved. Further, they were routinely told that the schools had greater authority over choice of information than parents. Parents are responsible for paying the expenses of the child, but the school is responsible for deciding what the child believes.

Biology: Here, belief becomes even more confused. Americans are told that men can be women and vice versa. All that’s required is to "identify" as the opposite gender, and it becomes an accepted fact. But it doesn’t stop there. There are no longer two genders; there are scores of them – so many that no one can remember them all, yet young people are continually fearful that they may refer to one of their classmates as one gender, mistaking the classmate’s self-perception and inviting shame from other classmates. LBGTQ+ has become a nightmare of confusion – an ever-morphing labyrinth that no one can get correct at this point.

Equality: Possibly one of the loftiest of beliefs is that of equality. Yes, we are all different in countless ways, but the concept of equality suggests that all people should have equal opportunity. It’s then up to the individual what he does with that opportunity. But equity inserts the word "fair." In practice, this has come to mean that, to be fair, we must ignore equality and embrace preference and prejudice.

Those with darker skin must receive greater entitlement, and those with lighter skin must experience shame. Those who are male must be diminished socially unless they identify as women, in which case, they may enjoy an advantage in sporting competitions. Those who are from a racial or ethnic minority must be given preference or even sole access to designated job opportunities. As George Orwell famously stated in his book Animal Farm, "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others."

So, what’s happening here? Is it simply that people are questioning traditional beliefs more than before? Are they becoming more open-minded and willing to consider alternative perceptions? Well, no. If that were true, then those who held a conventional view would not be shamed by those who did not. Students who defend conventional beliefs are expelled from their schools. Employees who defend conventional beliefs have been fired from their jobs merely for thinking "incorrect" thoughts. Those who decide not to get vaxxed can expect to have their basic rights removed.

There is a concerted movement, led by the media but supported by much of the public, to question conventional beliefs and eliminate them. So, is there a new set of beliefs that are meant to supplant the old beliefs? Well, not really. Last week, there were 52 genders; this week, there are 74. How about next week?

At this point, the average individual, try as he may (I hope that’s an acceptable pronoun), is likely to say, "Jeez, I don’t know what to believe anymore." And there we have it… the entire point of the re-education of belief. The point is to create such a level of confusion that people not only cease to voice their beliefs but eventually do away with their beliefs, agreeing with whatever they’re told to believe… for the moment. In doing so, a compliant populace is created. If totalitarian rule is to be accomplished, people must, above all, be compliant. They must willingly (and immediately) agree with whatever belief is being foisted upon them.

But for what purpose? Well, without belief, the individual is, in fact, not an individual. He is merely a useful tool of the state. Let that thought sink in a bit. This is the point at which it becomes necessary to step back and take in the big picture. When any state has reached the point that it grooms its people to cease to have beliefs, it has already gone far beyond the point of validity.

At such a point, the populace is faced with a very unpleasant choice of possible ways forward: The first is to rebel against the state in some form. The second is to bail out – to leave one’s country in hopes of finding greener pastures elsewhere. If both of these choices are too daunting to consider, there is a third choice.

Submit."

- https://internationalman.com/

"Breaking! Biden Declares National State of Emergency as Putin Takes Key Ukraine City"

Full screen recommended.

Redacted, 3/6/23:

"Breaking! Biden Declares National State of 

Emergency as Putin Takes Key Ukraine City"

"President Biden just signed a national declaration of emergency over Ukraine. This gives him unprecedented executive powers. In today's show, we're looking at his new moves on surveillance, digital currency and more."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Peak Focus for Complex Tasks With Beta Isochronic Tones"

Full screen recommended.

"Peak Focus for Complex Tasks 

 With Beta Isochronic Tones"

by Jason Lewis - Mind Amend

"This is a high-intensity audio brainwave entrainment session, using isochronic tones. Listen to this when you need a strong burst of intense focus to concentrate and study things like advanced mathematics, scientific formulas, financial analysis or any other complex mental activity. Listen to this track with your eyes open while doing the task/activity you want to focus on. Use this session in the morning, afternoon or early evening, to train your brain for better cognition, focus and thought processing. You can either sit somewhere quiet and comfortable with your eyes closed and give your brain a nice workout, or you can also listen to this while doing an activity that requires a boost in concentration.

Headphones are NOT REQUIRED for this video. Although headphones are not required you may find they produce a more intense effect, because they help to block out distracting external sounds.

"Cognition Enhancer Extended Version"

o

"Isochronic tones are a fast and effective audio-based way to stimulate your brain. Among many of the benefits, they can help improve focus, relaxation, energy levels, sleep and more, without taking drugs or needing any special equipment. What isochronic tones essentially do is guide your dominant brainwave activity to a different frequency while you are listening to them, allowing you to influence and change your mental state and how you feel."

I strongly suggest you read Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

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"Isochronic Tones –

How They Work, the Benefits and the Research"

This is a brainwave entrainment audio session using isochronic tones combined with music. The isochronic tones are the repetitive beats you can hear on top of the music throughout the track. If you are new to this type of audio brainwave entrainment, find out how isochronic tones work and how they compare to binaural beats here: 

- https://www.mindamend.com

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Listen folks, we're out of time! Whether you want to know it or not we're literally in the fight of our lives, for our lives, right now, and it's going to get much, much worse. Some of you reading this will not survive, and I may not either, so I'll take any edge I can get, and you should too... This works for me. Prepare yourself, brace for impact...

- CP

"How It Really Is"

"People are About to Spend Less"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, iAllegedly 3/6/23:

"People are About to Spend Less"

"It’s very apparent in the economy that people are spending less money than ever. As spring approaches, people realize that they do not have the money for anything extracurricular."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Economic Market Snapshot 3/6/23"

"Economic Market Snapshot 3/6/23"

Market Data Center, Live Updates:

- https://www.marketwatch.com/market-data 

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Down the rabbit hole of psychopathic greed and insanity...

Only the consequences are real - to you!

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"It's a Big Club, and you ain't in it. 

You and I are not in the Big Club."

- George Carlin

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- https://www.asktraders.com/analysis/

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A comprehensive, essential daily read.

- http://www.shadowstats.com/

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Financial Stress Index

"The OFR Financial Stress Index (OFR FSI) is a daily market-based snapshot of stress in global financial markets. It is constructed from 33 financial market variables, such as yield spreads, valuation measures, and interest rates. The OFR FSI is positive when stress levels are above average, and negative when stress levels are below average. The OFR FSI incorporates five categories of indicators: credit, equity valuation, funding, safe assets and volatility. The FSI shows stress contributions by three regions: United States, other advanced economies, and emerging markets."

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- https://www.dailyjobcuts.com/

Job cuts and much more.

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- https://www.zerohedge.com/

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- https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/

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- https://wallstreetonparade.com/

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- https://www.whatreallyhappened.com/

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- https://jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com/

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Commentary, highly recommended:

- https://www.theburningplatform.com/

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"The more I see of the monied classes,

the better I understand the guillotine."

- George Bernard Shaw

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Oh yeah... beyond words. Any I know anyway...

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And now... The End Game...

"Heaven from Hell"

"Heaven from Hell"

Debt and deficits join forces with war 

and inflation to assail the reigning empire...

by Bill Bonner and Joel Bowman

"So you think you can tell,

Heaven from Hell,

Blue skies from pain..."

~ Pink Floyd

San Martin, Argentina - "Our story so far…The feds spent too much money. Prices went up. The Fed raised rates. Stocks and bonds went down. ‘Not to worry,’ they said; the inflation was “transitory.” But months go by and prices are still going up. Friday’s news from Breitbart: "With the February jobs report delayed until next Friday, a lot of focus today was on the Institute for Supply Management’s (ISM) services sector index for February. The ISM index held steady at 55.1, just one-tenth of a point below the January reading and above the consensus estimate."

Readings above 50 indicate expansion, while readings below indicate contraction. A reading at 50 exactly indicates levels were unchanged from the prior month. In other words, this was a serious blow to Team Transitory.

The subindexes were also uncomfortably hot and point to inflation pressures remaining high. The employment index jumped from 50 to 54, indicating payroll expansion. That suggests we may get a hotter-than-expected payrolls number next week, which would increase pressure on the Federal Reserve to ramp up the pace of its rate hikes to 50 basis points.

Cluster Threats: So, the Fed must continue to raise its key rate until either 1) it gets ahead of inflation and/or 2) something goes seriously wrong. Note that as long as assets are going up faster than interest rates, people will continue borrowing to speculate. This raises stock prices. But it also increases the money supply (banks create money as it is lent out). As the supply of fast money increases, prices rise (inflation). One way or another, the Fed must bring down the financial markets as well as inflation.

That is why Number 2 is what we’re prepared for here at the Bonner Private Research headquarters in Argentina; it’s where the risk is. We avoid it by only owning things (stocks, gold…real estate) that we want to hold for a long time, even through a major 10-year bear market.

All of that seems obvious to us. Less obvious are the bigger, ‘cluster’ threats. Those are: The growing, unpayable, ‘national’ debt…War, and the decline of the US empire…The forced abandonment of traditional energy sources…And the destruction of the US economy by excess government spending and regulation…silly, distracting ‘culture wars’…sanctions and tariffs…and inflation.

Regulatory Drag: These things pose even more risks to investors. We already have a government with $31 trillion of debt. The deficit for this year is headed towards $1.4 trillion. And interest payments of more than $1 trillion per year are coming soon.

The ‘green transition’ crusade is going to be expensive too. ‘Alternative’ energy costs more than traditional oil and gas. And since energy is an essential component of modern life, at a minimum, standards of living will fall.

Regulations also cost money. Here’s Gilder Guideposts: "According to the American Action Forum, quoted in the Wall Street Journal, in two years the Biden administration has imposed 517 “regulatory actions,” with some $318 billion in total costs, worse even than the Obama administration’s $208 billion in costs in its first two years. In his entire term, Trump’s additional regulatory burden came to just $64.7 billion."

Federal regulations are gouging at least $2 trillion a year from the U.S. economy, some 8% of U.S. GDP, according to the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEE). That comes to some $14,684 per family more than is extracted by the federal income tax, the CEE reported.

And then, there’s the war agenda. It already costs as much as $1 trillion per year – 4% of GDP – to fund the Pentagon, spy on everyone, everywhere, maintain bases all over the world and meddle in the affairs of foreign nations.

Enemy of the People: Between war, interest on the debt, and regulation, we’re already facing $4 trillion a year. This is equivalent to spending about 85 cents of every dollar of federal tax income on things that ‘The People’ don’t really want or need…things that will make us all poorer.

Last week, we recalled our Bad Guy Theory (BGT). It’s a way of explaining the otherwise incomprehensible tendency for the press and the public to suddenly make an enemy out of people who’ve done them no harm…and to spend trillions of dollars going to war with them.

In 2002, for example, George W. Bush’s speechwriter, David Frum – who later went on to greater fame by suggesting that people who didn’t get vaccinated against Covid should be punished – came up with the “Axis of Evil” jingo. The idea wasn’t that Iraq, Iran and North Korea had actually done anything for which they should be penalized; it was that they were “bad guys.” Frum et al think they can tell Heaven from Hell. In their doltish way, they think some people are good; some are bad. You can make a better world, they believe, by eliminating the bad ones.

The US soon invaded Iraq…spent 2 trillion dollars…killed hundreds of thousands of people…turned millions into refugees. And now Iraq is arguably a worse guy. But no one talks about Iraq anymore. Now we have a new bad guy, China! Stay tuned..."

Joel’s Note: As the third largest line item on the Federal Government’s expenses, National (ahem) Defense costs the nation roughly the same amount as net interest on the debt, education, veteran’s benefits, transportation and all those pesky expenses lumped together under “other”… combined.

See the nifty chart below, which BPR’s macro analyst, Dan Denning, forwarded over yesterday…

Click image for larger size.

The chart shows total receipts and outlays for the Federal Government so far for the fiscal year 2023 (which, for their own accounting purposes, the government begins each year in October). That little yellow line you see dangling beneath the green receipts, the $406 billion underlap, represents the deficit… so far. “That's 9% above pace from last year,” writes Dan, “and on pace for $1.4 trillion for the year.”

Continues Dan…"The top five spending items make up 95% of federal revenue year to date. Every other dollar of spending is borrowed. And remember, the YTD $194 billion net interest is just interest on money we've already borrowed. Annualized, through the end of 2022, net interest expense was $852 billion. Probably higher now."

Here’s another chart Dan shared, this one depicting the Federal Government’s interest payments…

Click image for larger size.

Perhaps more concerning even that the total outflows here is the accelerating trend, the dreaded “hockey stick” you see in the upper right corner. Not pretty. “I began the chart in 1971,” Dan notes, “the year of our Fake Dollar (In FD terms, we are in year 52...52 FD).”

For comparison, annualized net interest expense on Federal debt was $34 billion back in Q1 1971… or about as much as the Biden’s Climate Envoy, John Jetsetter Kerry, spends on restocking his Gulfstream minibar every year…

The final line of Dan’s email is worth reprinting verbatim. “If the Feds ever do default, I don't think you want a piece of paper in your hand, or a few digits in the ether, as the substance of your bet. I'd prefer something more physical, dense, and golden.”

- https://bonnerprivateresearch.substack.com/

"Major Price Increases At Walmart! This Is Getting Ridiculous!"

Full screen recommended.

Adventures With Danno, 3/6/23:

"Major Price Increases At Walmart! 

This Is Getting Ridiculous!"

"In today's vlog we are at Walmart, and are noticing major price increases on groceries! We are here to check out skyrocketing prices, and a lot of bare shelves! It's getting rough out here as stores seem to be struggling with getting products, and keeping them at an affordable price!"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Jim Kunstler, "Allegorical Intermezzo"

"Allegorical Intermezzo"

By Jim Kunstler

” If, however, as Pareto suggested… a governing elite is inevitable, then we are certainly under the wrong elites. Whether a circulation of elites can be completed in time to save the world economic system from ruin and the majority from destitution and veritable slavery is a question of no little urgency.” - Michael Rectenwald

Imagine that on an April evening in 1912, the captain of the RMS Titanic had announced a grand ball at which the male passengers were asked to wear their wives’ clothing and vice-versa. That was approximately the condition of Western Civ verging on springtime in 2023: preoccupied with silliness while the iceberg awaits.

But who would have thought the sinking of civilization would occur with such fantastic comic ornamentation? Men, in more ways than mere costuming, pretending to be women…incompetence honored, feted, even worshipped…intellect reduced to anti-thinking…anything of value thrown overboard in some weird post-modern potlatch ceremony of twisted moral righteousness…? But the hour is late, the party is near its end, and the iceberg is struck. The rest of the story will be you holding onto a few valuables, including your life, while the lifeboats get lowered.

From here forward, things get pretty interesting. And from here on, nobody is really in charge. The vacuum of leadership we’ve been living in becomes impossible to ignore, and nature (it’s rumored) hates a vacuum. For the moment, circumstances are in charge, not personalities.

Look no further than the fiasco in Ukraine, engineered by geniuses of the US foreign service in some daft exercise to show the world who’s who and what for. And, remind me: what was the basic idea there? To hamstring and hogtie Russia so badly that her people would overthrow the only rational head-of-state in Christendom, a figure who makes the presidents, chancellors, and prime ministers of Western Civ look like a troop of gibbering mandrills, with painted faces and blue butts, the ass-clowns of geopolitics.

Something tells me that this gang will not make it to the lifeboats. They’ll be left on deck gripping bottles of single malt scotch whiskey, singing Don’t Cry for me Argentina as the band plays, while the whole wicked colossus slides beneath the moonlight-tinted green waves. All of which is to say: these perilous and confounding times we live in are coming to a climax. Events are afoot now, choices must be made, truths will emerge, no one will be untouched, be careful who your friends are.

We’re waiting for financial markets, banks, and monies to blow, as an engine will when submerged in water. It can’t not happen, though every known device has been deployed to keep up appearances. The credibility of finance was thrown overboard a long time ago. Capital was sloshing around in the bilges as the ship heaved and pitched in the angry waters, and it had to go somewhere. The next turn will be when you go looking for where it went and you discover to your nauseated chagrin that the capital is just…gone! Through some legerdemain of physics, it disappeared…turned into a kind of anti-matter…fell through a black hole (possibly ripped by that iceberg), or up the smokestacks, like it was never there at all.

When that happens, our collective attention finally gets galvanized as by no shock before. When capital is truly gone, transmogrified into a whole lot of nothing, the time for standing by making faces and whining is over. By the way, this is the way the world ends for the vacuum known as “Joe Biden” and the Party of Chaos he is propped up to represent. Chaos, we will be astounded to learn, is not your friend, is not the solution to anything, least of all a polity that is floundering in lifeboats over cold, dark, deep water a thousand leagues from dry land. What’s more, there are no ships coming to the rescue. Guess why they put oars in the boats. Get set to pull, me hardies!

Yes, we’re at sea now, without a compass. Yet the stars sparkle dazzlingly above, and some aboard can actually read what they say and what they point to. If safety and sanity will not find us, maybe we can pull together toward wherever they wait. My gawd, it’s going to be a long haul, but have a little faith - remember what that is? (It’s the conviction that all of us together stand in some meaningful relation to existence.) Even if you’re too mentally drained to believe it, act as if it is so. Or, in post-modern parlance, fake it till you make it.

Didn’t think it would come to this when you signed on to the voyage? I guess so. You were comfortably ensconced one winter night in the mini-McMansion, on the overstuffed sofa, entertained by some Netflix inanity, scarfing down the microwaved cheeze morsels…when the wife said, “Hey, let’s book a cruise!” Seemed like a good idea at the time, which is what everything in the annals of history is and was. And now, look at where you are!"

- https://kunstler.com/

“The Loss Of Dignity”

“The Loss Of Dignity”

by The Zman

“If you step back and think about it, the normal man can probably list a dozen things he cannot say in public that he grew up hearing on television, usually as jokes. Then the jokes were no longer welcome in polite company and soon they were deemed “not funny” by the sorts of people who worry about such things. The same was true of simple observations about the world. Somehow noticing the obvious became impolite, then it became taboo and finally prohibited.

The reverse is true as well. Middle-aged men can probably think of a dozen things that were unimaginable or unheard of, which are now fully normal. Of course, normal is one of those things that is now prohibited. It implies that something can be abnormal or weird and that itself is forbidden. The proliferation of novel identities and activities that demand to be treated with dignity and respect is a function of the old restraints having been eliminated. When everything is possible you get everything.

The strange thing about all of this is there is seemingly no point to it. The proliferation of new taboos was not in response to some harm being done. In most cases, the taboos are about observable reality. The people turning up in the public square with novel identities or activities demanding respect did not exist very long ago. If they did, not one was curious enough to look into it. The public was happy to ignore people into unusual activities, as long as they kept it to themselves.

Of course, none of what we generally call political correctness is intended to be uplifting or inspirational. The commissars of public morality like to pretend it is inspiring, but that’s just a way to entertain themselves. These new identity groups are not demanding the rest of us seek some higher plane of existence or challenge our limitations. In fact, it is always in the opposite directions. It’s a demand to lower standards and give up on our quaint notions of self-respect and human dignity.

In the "Demon In Democracy", Polish academic Ryszard Legutko observed that liberal democracy had abandoned the concept of dignity. This is the obligation to behave in a certain way, as determined by your position in society. Dignity was earned by acting in accordance with the high standards of the community. In turn, this behavior was rewarded with greater privilege and responsibility. Failure to live up to one’s duties would result in the loss of dignity, along with the status it conferred.

Instead, modern liberal democracy awards dignity by default. We are supposed to respect all choices and all behaviors as being equal. There are no standards against which to measure human behavior, other than the standard of absolute, unconditional acceptance. As a result, the most inventively degenerate and base activities spring from the culture, almost like a test of the community’s tolerance. Instead of looking up to the heavens for inspiration, liberal democracies look down in the gutter.

Dignity comes from maintaining one’s obligations to his position in the social order, but that requires a fidelity to a social order. It also requires a connection to the rest of the people in the society. In a world of deracinated individuals focused solely on getting as much as they can in order to maximize pleasure, a sense of commitment to the community is not possible. Democracy assumes we are all equal, therefore we have no duty to one another as duty requires a hierarchical relationship.

In the absence of a vertical set of reciprocal relationships, we get this weird lattice work of horizontal relationships, elevating the profane and vulgar, while pulling down the noble and honorable. The public culture is about minimizing and degrading those who participate in the public culture. In turn, the public culture attracts only those who cannot be shamed or embarrassed. The great joy of public culture is to see those who aspire to more get torn down as the crowd roars at their demise.

The puzzle is why this is a feature of liberal democracy. Ryszard Legutko places the blame on Protestantism. Their emphasis on original sin and man’s natural limitations minimized man’s role in the world. This focus on man’s wretchedness was useful in channeling our urge to labor and create into useful activities, thus generating great prosperity, but it left us with a minimalist view of human accomplishment. We are not worthy to aspire to anything more than the base and degraded.

It is certainly true that the restraints of Christianity limited the sorts of behavior that are common today, but he may be putting the cart before the horse. The emergence of Protestantism in northern Europe was as much a result of the people and their nature as anything else. Put more simply, the Protestant work ethic existed before there was such a thing as a Protestant. The desire to work and delay gratification evolved over many generations out of environmental necessity.

Still, culture is an important part of man’s environment and environmental factors shape our evolution. It is not unreasonable to say that the evolution of Protestant ethics magnified and structured naturally occurring instincts among the people. With the collapse of Christianity as a social force in the West, the natural defense to degeneracy and vulgarity has collapsed with it. As a result, great plenty is the fuel for a small cohort of deviants to overrun the culture of liberal democracies.

Even so, there does seem to be something else. Liberal democracy has not produced great art or great architecture. The Greeks and Romans left us great things that still inspire the imagination of the man who happens to gaze upon them. The castles and cathedrals of the medieval period still awe us. The great flourishing of liberal democracy in the 20th century gave us Brutalism and dribbles of pain on canvas. The new century promises us primitives exposing themselves on the internet.

There is something about the liberal democratic order that seeks to strip us of our dignity and self-respect. Look at what happened in the former Eastern Bloc countries after communism. Exposed to the narcotic of liberalism they immediately acquired the same cultural patterns. Fertility collapsed. Religion collapsed. Marriage and family formation collapsed. These suddenly free societies got the Western disease as soon as they were exposed to western liberal democracy.

The reaction we see today is not due to these societies being behind the times, but due to seeing the ugly face of liberal democracy. It is much like the reaction to the proliferation of recreational drugs in the 1970’s. At first, it seemed harmless, but then people realized the horror of unrestrained self-indulgence. That’s what we see in the former Eastern Bloc. Their leaders still retain some of the old sense of things and are trying to save their people from the dungeon of modernity.

That still leaves us with the unanswered question. What is it about liberal democracy that seems to lead to this loss of dignity? It is possible that such a fabulously efficient system for producing wealth is a tool mankind is not yet equipped to handle without killing ourselves. Maybe we are just not built for anything but scarcity. Want gives us purpose and without it, we lose our reason to exist. Either way, without dignity, we cannot defend ourselves and the results are inevitable.”

- http://thezman.com/wordpress/

"More Walmarts Close For Good; Food Lines Get Longer"

Jeremiah Babe, 3/5/23:

"More Walmarts Close For Good; 

Food Lines Get Longer"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

"Alert: Moscow Explosion; Russia Preps for Martial Law"

Full screen recommended.

Canadian Prepper, 3/5/23:

"Alert: Moscow Explosion; 

Russia Preps for Martial Law"

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/

Musical Interlude: Supertramp, "Take The Long Way Home"

Full screen recommended.

Supertramp, "Take The Long Way Home"

"A Look to the Heavens"

"NGC 3199 lies about 12,000 light-years away, a glowing cosmic cloud in the nautical southern constellation of Carina. The nebula is about 75 light-years across in this narrowband, false-color view. Though the deep image reveals a more or less complete bubble shape, it does look very lopsided with a much brighter edge along the top. 

Near the center is a Wolf-Rayet star, a massive, hot, short-lived star that generates an intense stellar wind. In fact, Wolf-Rayet stars are known to create nebulae with interesting shapes as their powerful winds sweep up surrounding interstellar material. In this case, the bright edge was thought to indicate a bow shock produced as the star plowed through a uniform medium, like a boat through water. But measurements have shown the star is not really moving directly toward the bright edge. So a more likely explanation is that the material surrounding the star is not uniform, but clumped and denser near the bright edge of windblown NGC 3199."

- https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

"And That's Why..."

“I don’t believe in ‘original sin.’ I don’t believe in ‘guilt.’ I don’t believe in villains or heroes – only right or wrong ways that individuals have taken, not by choice but by necessity or by certain still-uncomprehended influences in themselves, their circumstances, and their antecedents. This is so simple I’m ashamed to say it, but I’m sure it’s true. In fact, I would bet my life on it! And that’s why I don’t understand why our propaganda machines are always trying to teach us, to persuade us, to hate and fear other people on the same little world that we live in.”

- Tennessee Williams

The Poet: Carl Sandburg, "Four Preludes on Playthings of the Wind "

"Four Preludes on Playthings of the Wind"

 The past is a bucket of ashes.

1

 "The woman named Tomorrow

sits with a hairpin in her teeth,

and takes her time,

and does her hair the way she wants it,

and fastens at last the last braid and coil,

and puts the hairpin where it belongs

and turns and drawls: Well, what of it?

My grandmother, Yesterday, is gone.

What of it? Let the dead be dead.

2

The doors were cedar,

and the panels strips of gold

and the girls were golden girls

and the panels read and the girls chanted:

We are the greatest city,

the greatest nation:

nothing like us ever was.

The doors are twisted on broken hinges.

Sheets of rain swish through on the wind

where the golden girls ran and the panels read:

We are the greatest city,

the greatest nation,

nothing like us ever was.

3

It has happened before.

Strong men put up a city and got

a nation together,

And paid singers to sing and women

to warble: We are the greatest city,

the greatest nation,

nothing like us ever was.

And while the singers sang

and the strong men listened

and paid the singers well

and felt good about it all,

there were rats and lizards who listened

and the only listeners left now

are the rats and the lizards.

And there are black crows

crying, Caw, caw,

bringing mud and sticks

building a nest

over the words carved

on the doors where the panels were cedar

and the strips on the panels were gold

and the golden girls came singing:

We are the greatest city,

the greatest nation:

nothing like us ever was.

The only singers now are crows crying, Caw, caw,

And the sheets of rain whine in the wind and doorways.

And the only listeners now are the rats and the lizards.

4

The feet of the rats

scribble on the door sills;

the hieroglyphs of the rat footprints

chatter the pedigrees of the rats

and babble of the blood

and gabble of the breed

of the grandfathers and the great-grandfathers

of the rats.

And the wind shifts

and the dust on a door sill shifts

and even the writing of the rat footprints

tells us nothing, nothing at all

about the greatest city, the greatest nation

where the strong men listened

and the women warbled: Nothing like us ever was."

- Carl Sandburg, 1878 - 1967

"Never Regret Anything..."

The Daily "Near You?"

Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA. Thanks for stopping by!

"What is it Really Worth?"

Full screen recommended.

Dan, iAllegedly 3/5/23:

"What is it Really Worth?"

"We have breaking news. With all the rain that we’ve had here in Southern California you have one house that is in danger of falling down the hillside. The surrounding houses have been yellow tagged. Plus, I cover the story of the woman that got completely fleeced when purchasing a vehicle."

Comments here:

- https://www.youtube.com/